Lomography launches new 35mm monochrome film stock cut from German cine film rolls

Inspired by the New German Cinema sweeping through Berlin in the 1960s, this film is extracted from a roll of cine film produced by a legendary German company that has been changing the face of cinema since the early 1900s," reads the product description. "Originally used to make moody monochrome movies, its gorgeous black and white tones lend a timeless effect to cinematic scenes."

The film has a native sensitivity of ISO 400, but Lomography says it can be pushed to ISO 800, 1,600, or 3,200 while still retaining a solid tonal range with minimal grain.

The Berlin Kino Film can be developed by professional labs or at home using standard black and white developers, including Kodak D-76, Kodak HC-110, Iford Ilfosol-3, and even Rollei's Black & White Reversal Kit if you're wanting to get a little wild and turn the negatives into positives.

The film is available in 5-packs for $44.50, which converts to $8.90 for each 36-exposure roll. Pre-orders are currently being taken with the estimated delivery window being sometime in December 2018. To find out more and to pick up your film, head on over to Lomography's product page.

Honestly, this is the first thing from Lomography that I can actually appreciate. Probably because they didn't really make it, just re-purposed and re-branded it. The samples actually look pleasing and... authentic, I guess. Not just tacky and hipster-y, like the cheap crap Lomography usually makes.

Good ol’ Lomography. Heavy on style, light on everything else including any useful information. No development chart so buy a few rolls, experiment and guess? Reciprocity failure? Acetate or polyester? Hello, anybody home??

Most Lomography film is something else rebranded rather than something genuinely unique. Foma, Tri-X, etc. But as stated this is some sort of movie film wound onto cassettes. That’s fine but if it’s EXPIRED I’d like to know about that! Or: try Cinestill Double X.

"nothing beats watching your negatives come out after you've developed them yourself." except for popping in a card and downloading them of course!! ha ha!

It's sad to see film become a thing of yesterday, but I must say that experiencing the transition to digital was quite interesting. I remember reading my Time Life photography books and there was one section on the future of photography. Boy were they way off.

I'm getting a feeling , that those ( photography )Kickstarters , instead of working on new , break through projects , just dragging it backwards , repeating the history , while turning inventions to toys

Those results look good and it's always good to see a new film, but B&W film prices are getting silly with new offerings seemingly significantly more expensive than tried-and tested excellent films like Delta and Tri-X. Just look at Streetpan and the new Ferrania P30, which cost almost twice as much as Ilford, Rollei or Kodak equivalents.

This is probably a limited batch that won't be around forever, £7.90 is not prohibitively expensive for a film you might shoot occasionally. As always, there are cheaper options if you don't want to buy it.

"The native sensitivity of this film is ISO 400 (27°C)." Quote from Lomography's site. Is this the first film whereby one can alter its sensitivity depending upon the ambient temperature? Sadly, Lomo offers no conversion table.

Viewing these images does look like those I was getting in the early to mid-1960's using HP3. This Lomo does have interesting image properties, which I like.

Jonathan, of course with 57 years of photography behind me, I did know that. I was just having a little fun at Lomo for the obvious typo. As for older speed ratings, I still think in terms of ASA, which is what I grew up with.

For me, the pixel perfection of modern digital photography lacks the real soul of traditional film and materials. If you've ever compared the experience of developing a fibre based black and white print in a traditional darkroom, the touch and feel of the print beats an inkjet hands down. Traditional analogue photography is an established, fine-art craft, digital is simply a convenient medium to record images.

Agree. I'm constantly fascinated about the "debate" over film vs. digital. I was a reluctant convert from film to digital, but I still appreciate both mediums for their individual qualities. It's nice to have choices.

Wonderful! Really need to get off my a... and get a film camera. Glad Kodak has resurrected Ektachrome, too. Been looking at used Contax T2s, but the prices are high. It was my favorite film camera and I should not have sold it. Stupid me.

Not sure what you mean by "silly product marketing concept"; is the product silly, the marketing silly or the concept silly? Is the concept of the product, or of the marketing? Is the marketing of the product, or of the concept?

Guy R, your comment was beyond silly. How many hipsters do you know? How many of them use film? As for me, I know lots of film shooters and none of them are hipsters. The assumption that film is a hipster thing is as stupid as saying Leicas are dentists' cameras. It's an idiotic cliché and, like all clichés, it's tiresome.

Arastoo Vaziri, Perhaps you don't find a correlation between hipsters and using a grainy black and white film in 2018.Fair enough.However, considering the specific photos that Lomography chose as marketing material for this film, it seems that they certainly do.

Being in the San Francisco Bay area, I will vouch that I do know a few hipsters... and a good number of them, when they actually bring a camera... do shoot film, often badly... but sometimes interesting.

Stereotypes don't arise without reason. That's not to say that all film shooters are hipsters. But I would be willing to bet that Lomo offering b/w film cut from old motion picture stock is designed to appeal to mostly hipsters. Serious film shooters would be more concerned with the capabilities that modern formulations make possible.

Arastoo Vaziri, you need to grow a thicker skin. Or store that chip on your shoulder in your film cache fridge box.

This is hardly hipster, more like average B&W film. What is hipster was for example Rollei Vario Chrome limited edition film in flashy gold packaging. It contains long expired stock of E-6 film packaged into 35mm format. The result is very grainy with washed out colors. Way to sell poor quality product, basically old stock found at some warehouse, as premium unique product. I wanted to try it too until I saw the results and reviews.

Complain about grain in films is like complain oil paintings because their thick lines is away from what we call ''close to reality''.Art is not just about reality, but the way we use a medium to achieve a different look of reality.

apestorm, true. I was quoting prices for the mainstream 'brand' films from Ilford, Fuji & Kodak. I've used a lot of Kentmere; it's as good as Ilford, but has less latitude in processing. If you get the temperature and timing right, then it's an affordable first-class film.

Lomo Uk's site has this for £45 including delivery for 5 - so in UK its £8 roll + £5 delivery. As someone else has said its probably old rolls of Orwo N74 which you can buy fresh in 35mm cartridges for under £7 a roll from other suppliers or in reels to bulk load yourself. Lomo are charging a premium over fresh Orwo to shoot with higher base fog and reduced contrast. You can even see they have had to add in deeper shadows and brighter highlights in photoshop in the gallery to artificially increase the contrast of what looks just a really flat old film. Total hustle of the typically younger but enthusiastic and loyal community they have created.

The grain in those photos is like a 3200asa film, rather than 400asa. It's not unpleasant, particularly for street etc. I wonder if it'll react well to cooler slower dev.

But I'll never know because looking at the gallery, it's really difficult to justify that price; unless you want a fast-film-look without the advantages of fast film. Nearly double the price we pay for Ilford HP5.

Actually there is a cassette trend going on for a while, discogs lists 13k+ releases just this year alone.. you can say whatever you want about sound quality (or lack of thereof) but some people seem to like it.

Analogue film photography is coming back it seems. I noted yesterday that one of the biggest online camera sellers here in Sweden now has a part of their web store dedicated to it with color and B/W film, slide film and accessorizes, even projectors and development service.

I can also see that the vintage lenses on auction sites have started to get higher prices and fewer items are on sale (people keep the stuff and don't sell it).

Some might be due to more mirrorless FF cameras on which these are easy to adapt. But nowadays even old analogue film camera bodys without a lens sells which they didn't do before.

And not just that, all old analogue things like vinyl, cassette tapes and music of those days seem to be trendy. Hollywood film like Guardian of the Galaxy II, Ready Player One and the film Kodachrome helps to drive this.

Also there is a growing trend to reuse things.

I wonder how this movement will continue, is it just the beginning, the top or the end of it we see now?

Nobody uses cassette tapes anymore. People buy vinyl records because they sound more pleasant than CDs (let alone MP3 files). Cassette tapes sound compressed, have hiss and are much too impractical.And people shoot film because it's more fun and rewarding than digital. Nothing to do with nostalgia, nor with reusing stuff.And it's been on for about ten years. Just like vinyl, which revival happened more than a decade before, it doesn't look like it's going away soon.

Latest in-depth reviews

Canon's EOS R, the company's first full-frame mirrorless camera, impresses us with its image quality and color rendition. But it also comes with quirky ergonomics, uninspiring video features and a number of other shortcomings. Read our full review to see how the EOS R stacks up in today's full-frame mirrorless market.

No Nikon camera we've tested to date balances stills and video capture as well as the Nikon Z7. Though autofocus is less reliable than the D850, Nikon's first full-frame mirrorless gets enough right to earn our recommendation.

Nikon's Coolpix P1000 has moved the zoom needle from 'absurd' to 'ludicrous,' with an equivalent focal length of 24-3000mm. While it's great for lunar and still wildlife photography, we found that it's not suited for much else.

The Nikon Z7 is slated as a mirrorless equivalent to the D850, but it can't subject track with the same reliability as its DSLR counterpart. AF performance is otherwise good, except in low light where hunting can lead to missed shots.

Latest buying guides

What's the best camera for under $500? These entry level cameras should be easy to use, offer good image quality and easily connect with a smartphone for sharing. In this buying guide we've rounded up all the current interchangeable lens cameras costing less than $500 and recommended the best.

Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Sony mirrorlses cameras in several categories to make your decisions easier.

Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Canon DSLRs in several categories to make your decisions easier.

Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Nikon DSLRs in several categories to make your decisions easier.

What’s the best camera for less than $1000? The best cameras for under $1000 should have good ergonomics and controls, great image quality and be capture high-quality video. In this buying guide we’ve rounded up all the current interchangeable lens cameras costing under $1000 and recommended the best.

Canon's EOS R, the company's first full-frame mirrorless camera, impresses us with its image quality and color rendition. But it also comes with quirky ergonomics, uninspiring video features and a number of other shortcomings. Read our full review to see how the EOS R stacks up in today's full-frame mirrorless market.

We spoke to wildfire photographer Stuart Palley about his experiences shooting the recent Woolsey fire, why the Nikon Z7 isn't quite ready to take a permanent spot in his gear bag, and 'that' Tweet from Donald Trump.

The Z7 presented Nikon with a stiff challenge: how to build a mirrorless camera that measures up to its own DSLRs and can deliver a familiar experience to Nikon users. Chris and Jordan tell us whether they think Nikon succeeded.

Nikon has released firmware version 1.02 that resolves a flickering issue when scrolling through images, an ISO limitation problem, and an occasional crash that could occur when displaying certain Raw files.

The Insta360 One X is the company's latest consumer 360-degree camera, supporting 5.7K video, including excellent image stabilization, as well as 18MP photos. And, in our experience, it's a really fun camera to use.